Black Lab Outperforms Lab Test at Detecting Cancer

With a little training, a dog can learn to heel. But a new study adds to growing evidence that man's best friend can also learn to heal by detecting invisible signs of disease.

Marine, a specially-trained 8-year-old black Labrador retriever, detected colorectal cancer 91 percent of the time when sniffing patients' breath and 97 percent of the time when sniffing stool, according to a study published Jan. 31 in the British journal Gut.

She even beat the fecal occult blood test, the most economic and non-invasive screening for colorectal cancer, which positively predicts the presence of cancer only 10 percent of the time, according to lead author Dr. Hideto Sonoda, from Fukuoka Dental College Hospital in Japan, and colleagues.

"We shouldn't be shocked by this," said Dr. Marty Becker, a veterinarian at the North Idaho Animal Hospital and author of "The Healing Power of Pets." "We know dogs can detect accelerants, explosives, mold, peanuts -- even counterfeit CDs."

It's estimated that a dog's sense of smell is up to 1 million times better than that of a human, depending on the breed.

"It's like having an NFL stadium filled with yellow balls and one red ball," Becker said. "That's the concentration of scent a trained dog could find."

Dogs Guard Human Health

"They become very accustomed to our behavior," Johnson said. "They're very intuitive and they detect even the subtlest behavioral changes."

A slight drag of the foot, a change in walking pace or a tremor imperceptible to the human eye can send a message to dogs that something's off.

"These dogs are guarding our physical and emotional health," Becker said, explaining that a nudge on the arm during a stressful session at the computer can be a warning to a take a much-needed break.

For people who have anxiety disorders -- particularly post-traumatic stress disorder -- dogs serve not only as companions, but also perform particular skills that help their owners to live fuller lives, Johnson said.

And nothing motivates a person to get out for a walk like the hopeful eyes of a dog, leash in mouth, tail wagging.

"We showed that people who walked with dogs had 72 percent adherence to a walking regimen," Johnson said, explaining that adherence was better with dogs than with a human walking buddy. "Dogs are always ready to go and always encouraging."

Among older adults, dogs boosted adherence to 100 percent, which led to a 28 percent improvement in walking speed, Johnson said. Walking speed was recently linked to lifespan.